Skift Take
Will AI replace the Tim Williams (Trivago Guy) and William Shatner (the Priceline Negotiator) types? Could be. Trivago, meanwhile, is already testing a second AI-infused commercial.
Tim Williams, the Texas-born actor who played the Trivago Guy didn't know he'd been replaced until he saw a new Trivago commercial last December.
There had been hints. Last year, Trivago had tried re-running old ads featuring Williams, and his agent said the results weren't promising.
"At the moment they've got what they need," Williams said his agent told him. "And they'll look at the numbers and get back to us. And, so they never really got back."
Trivago went in a different direction. Its TV commercials that began running last December feature a new actor and use AI so he can seem to speak in multiple languages for different markets.
Williams, now 57, is back in the U.S. after living in Germany for more than 20 years. Skift recently caught up with him in a video chat while he was at his mom's condo in the Houston area.
What do you think of Trivago's move to use AI TV commercials that